Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The cat is finally out of the bag. A California appellate court, ruling that parents have no constitutional right to home school their children, pinned its decision on this ominous quotation from a 47-year-old case: "A primary purpose of the educational system is to train schoolchildren in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare."
"A primary purpose of the educational system is to train schoolchildren in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare."
Now be a good little drone, wave your flag, and get back to work!
Not only is that quote scary, but wow, they're not doing a very good job, are they? LOL
As a homeschooler, I'm not terribly concerned... homeschooling is growing like wildfire, and I do'nt see an end to it any time soon.
What a joke -- like we, parents, aren't educating our children every day of their lives, whether it's formally or informally?
How scary. Thanks for posting this, with the link. I'm not sure how I missed this on the news.
I taught in public schools here in my state for 25+ years, and I always admired those who chose to, and who could, home school their children. I don't see where even a half-wit parent couldn't do a better job in some cases than what our failing education system does overall.
There is little comparison to the education my own daughter received, to the one I did, 32 years previously. I graduated from HS in 1973; she did in 2005. I hate to say this, but I even wonder about the three years she has spent in college now. I have friends who teach at the college level who say they wonder what we are doing at the HS.
It's been the "dumbing down of America" for decades.
I taught in public schools here in my state for 25+ years, and I always admired those who chose to, and who could, home school their children. I don't see where even a half-wit parent couldn't do a better job in some cases than what our failing education system does overall.
There is little comparison to the education my own daughter received, to the one I did, 32 years previously. I graduated from HS in 1973; she did in 2005. I hate to say this, but I even wonder about the three years she has spent in college now. I have friends who teach at the college level who say they wonder what we are doing at the HS.
It's been the "dumbing down of America" for decades.
The article linked below, written by a college prof, explains what's been happening to our schools since the 1960's. Don't forget that since this article was published, the SAT has had to be 'recentered' due to persistent declines in students' SAT scores.
"A college professor looks at the forgotten victims of our mediocre educational system--the potentially high achievers whose SAT scores have fallen, and who read less, understand less of what they read, and know less than the top students of a generation ago."
The Other Crisis in American Education - 91.11 (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/educatio/singalf.htm - broken link)
An explanation for why our schools have lost their focus on academics:
Horsefeathers - ON EDUCATION: BY RITA KRAMER (http://doctor-horsefeathers.com/archives2/000391.php - broken link)
What I find lame is this claim that homeschooling would be illegal. Prior to government creating public education, children were homeschooled. When public education came into play, homeschooling was not made illegal. The only requirement I know of is that a child MUST be registered as either attending a public school, private school, homeschooled etc.
I have 2 teenagers and both of them currently attend public high schools. However, this is my choice at this moment, primarily due to lack of finances to send them to private school. If I could have afforded it, my children would have attended private school all along.
Here in Florida, there are a lot of good teachers and there are even a lot of good schools but overall, there is much room for improvement and many failing schools and teachers, sad but true. Teachers are among the most underpaid considering the importance of the work they do and what it entails nowadays. Classrooms are overcrowded as they are filled to maximum capacity. When the government can fix the problems that exist in public schools, then can they perhaps make such a claim as their educational system being the best that there is and thus making homeschooling, etc. illegal.
There is nothing illegal about homeschooling your child. What the law does not allow is for you to be the registered homeschooling teacher of another person's child. My son is now 19, and as I mentioned is in public school. He is now a senior. However, when he was in 5th grade, attending public school, he was struggling tremendously in school (while he was never a behavioral problem). He was diagnosed mild inattentive type ADD with a mild anxiety disorder. The school was in no way prepared to deal with or help my son.
At the end of 5th grade, after much fighting with the school and literally having to obtain a lawyer to get the school to test my son, they did. They performed a pyscho-educational evaluation. While my son was being promoted to 6th grade, the school's own educational tests showed him working at a 2nd grade level. When I confronted the school and school board staff about this, their justification was to say that all students were performing below grade level and this was totally normal. HUH??? That was my reaction. I asked point blank if they found this acceptible, because I did not. I told them that when I see my child being promoted to 6th grade, I totally expect him to be functioning at a 6th grade level.
Needless to say I asked for withdrawl papers and filled them out stating that I was withdrawing my son and would be homeschooling him. Ohhhh they told me it would never work and I would fail at this because I was not a "creditialed" teacher. I withdrew him anyways. I homeschooled him from 6th grade through 9th grade and re-enrolled him in public school at 10th grade. During those 4 school years that I homeschooled my son, his test scores (as required by the state and administered through certified, creditialed state teachers and submitted to the school board annually as required) showed him having moved from a 2nd grade level to a 10th grade level. Yup. 8-9 grade levels in just 4 years time. Not to mention improved social skills through group activities that promoted such as well as physical activity, i.e sports and exercise.
While homeschool is definately not for every child or even for every family, what homeschool is not and should never be considered is illegal. There are children, and times, when homeschooling is the most beneficial thing that can be done for them. What should be illegal is kids being pushed through the public school system, without having obtained the proper education (even by their own system and testing) because they are simply pushing them through to make room for the incoming students. That's what I find to be a crime.
As parents, when we send our children to school, we expect that they are being educated and learning what they need to learn. While many students do, and again, while there are many good schools and excellent teachers out there, I think many parents would be surprised to see what their students really test like, even in the elementary school years.
I am not against public education, but I am realistic and there have been many accounts/statistics that have shown that many (while not all) homeschooled children do much better in College entrance exams than many (while not all) public school students or private school students. I say, let the parents continue to be able to have a choice when it comes to the education of their children.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
